Personal Best Smallmouth

[Bassin' Ted]

22" 6.6 lbs 17" girth

Caught at 5 AM this morning. Green pumpkin tube, 8lb P-Line fluorocarbon

Released- Getting a replica made.

[catchafew]

Hell of a nice fish and congrats on your PB! Post some pics of the replica when you get it back.

[mschmalz]

Hell of a fish indeed, nice!!

[Aux Pleins]

Excellent! Same pose as your avatar. That had to have been one hell of a tug.

[achotrod]

Dang that's a pig! Congrats!

[RonG]

Super fish for a super guy! Very nice!

[Skifish1]

Congrats, nice north woods smallie, kind of makes you worry with 8lb line but as long as good fluoro that helps. I learned my lesson with 6lb line with north LM smallies...

[Bassin' Ted]

Excellent! Same pose as your avatar. That had to have been one hell of a tug.

LOL- caught at the same spot (3 years later) as my avatar and the picture was at the same boat launch. On this same spot I have caught a 6.6, 5.9, 5.7, 5.3, 4.13, and many, many 4s. Not to mention the lake trout and carp I have caught there too. There was a tournament on Saturday and I would have loved to have joined. Had something in the high teens when I left by noon. Thanks for the kind words everyone. Nothing beats Great Lakes Smallies!!

[joetrain]

Beautiful fish. Smallmouth are like bull dogs their fight is relentless. ~JOE~

[jmdog2003]

Egads man, nice fish!

[BrookfieldAngler]

Awesome smallmouth!! Congrats on that beast!

[FISHdank]

Very nice!!

[bapentec]

Awesome!

[WetWader]

That thing is a tank!

[Steve-O]

FOOTBALL! Beautiful Fish. Minimum 17 PSI. Congrats.

[AKA-Fishcatcher]

Awesome Smallie. Never fished the big lake for smallmouth, looks like I'm missing out.

[Handler]

Assuming this was in Chicago, that's only 1oz off the record. Amazing!

[Theshocker1293]

Jesus awesome catch! Congrats on the PB!

[tmoney]

Nice fish man! Kinda looks like the Cal-Sag, but that would be a freak from in there.

[41x9hirschj]

Beautiful smallie, congrats on the PB!

[ohoffm]

Nice fish. That is definitely replica worthy.

[krispydave]

Nice tank!

[1080tommy]

Completely awesome fish!!! Congrats and that is also awesome that you let it go to get a replica!!!! Great job!!!!

[Kamala]

Great looking smallmouth.

[Bassin' Ted]

Assuming this was in Chicago, that's only 1oz off the record. Amazing!

Not in Chicago- I was way north.

I was thinking about something I like to say "Nothing beats a Great Lake Smallie" and just how appropriate that is. I have fished a lot of lakes in Illinois including taking many trips to Newton, Lake of Egypt, and Jacksonville. Those are considered to be the best lakes in the state. Newton was just rated somewhere in the top 100 lakes by Bassmaster and a couple years ago Jacksonville was rated the best lake in the state. And those lakes are so far below what we have in the Great Lakes. Just Thursday morning, I was feeling a little down about my fishing performance. I had stupidly broken off on 2 fish (frayed line) and had missed too many while fishing a tube. And then I realized that if I were fishing a tournament I would of had 16-18 lbs of bass which is more than anything I've ever had in a tournament. Not surprisingly, my biggest limits have been caught in Door Co around 16 lbs.

When I think about my last 20 years of fishing, my top 10 best fishing moments would be littered with smallmouth fishing on the Great Lakes even though I have spent much more time fishing largemouth. I'll always take a spring trip to So IL in March or April every year but come summer time it is all smallmouth all the time. Get yourself out to Door Co, St Clair, Erie, Grand Traverse, and the Bays de Noc. I highly recommend it.

[JustinCarf]

Congrats!!! That is a BEAUTY!

[dchiapas23]

Nice fish.. just .1 away from tie in the official Illinois record.

[JB]

That's a beast. Congrats on the new PB! Love Grand Traverse only fished in once but beautiful greenies up there.

[Joeshoto]

KILLA!!!